<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Good Morning Visionaries:</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">It took me some time to get clear on this issue, but it became obvious to me that I had to support the ACLU position.'</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">A shorter version of this column was published last Thursday in the DNews, but this version will go in the Sandpoint Reader on Thursday. The full version is attached.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">You all have a great day,</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">nfg</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><b><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">WSU Did the Right Thing on Campus Free Speech<span></span></font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">By Nick Gier<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"> In
my 50 years of political activism, I have never shouted down a speaker, but it
has become far too frequent these days. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Especially unfortunate was the disruption of
a joint meeting of College Republicans and College Democrats at UC Santa Cruz
on October 15, 2017. </span><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Peaceful joint
discussions of these two groups are on-going at Washington State University,
where a former College Republican president was forced to resign after
attending the Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville (see below).<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">On
October 4, 2016, a speaker from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the
foremost champion of First Amendment rights, was forced from the stage at
William and Mary College by members of Black Lives Matters. They were upset with ACLU legal action that
secured the permit for the “Unite the Right” rally at a park in Charlottesville,
Virginia. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">The night
before the rally several hundred protestors marched without permission through
the University of Virginia campus. They carried with tiki torches, gave the
Nazi salute, and chanted hate-filled chants such as “the Jew will not replace
us,” “blood and soil” (white blood only on America soil), and “white lives
matter.” The next day one of the protestors drove his car through a group of
counter-protestors, killing one woman and injuring 34 others.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Implicitly admitted to a
serious mistake, ACLU President Anthony Romero has responded to the Charlottesville
tragedy saying that they will not represent any group “carrying loaded
firearms.” But he added that “even odious hate speech, with which we vehemently
disagree, garners the protection of the First Amendment when expressed
non-violently.” <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">This standard policy was in
effect when ACLU attorneys filed a suit against the Washington, D.C. Metro for
removing ads for Milo Yiannopoulos’ book <i>Dangerous</i>
from subway stations and cars. Yiannopoulous is a notorious “Alt-Right” speaker,
who has caused controversy for his on-campus appearances, as well as when he
has been barred from speaking. </span><span style="line-height:150%;color:rgb(28,32,34);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">After I have reviewed all the news coverage, I’ve concluded that the WSU
administration did the right thing regarding the controversy surrounding its
College Republicans. In October of 2016, they erected a 24-foot replica of
Trump’s border wall. Hundreds of students reacted by climbing the wall and/or
engaging in spirited debate with the young Republicans.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In January of last year the group invited Yiannopolous to campus, but the
speech was cancelled because of icy roads. Yiannopolous had just spoken at the
University of Washington the night of Trump’s inauguration, and a Trump
supporter, claiming self-defense, shot an anti-Trump protestor in the stomach.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Former College Republican president James Allsup interviewed white
supremacist Richard Spencer on YouTube, but he claims that he is not a racist
nor a white nationalist. But the <i>Spokesman-Review</i>
quotes him as saying: “Other cultures have a right to exist, but they can exist
[only] in their own countries.” He added that when you bring in those “who
don’t look like you, you lose a sense of national identity.” <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Although he says that he attended the Charlottesville event only in a
“media capacity,” he marched with the torch bearers and was thrilled to greet
white supremacist Richard Spencer at the rally. When the College Republican
National Committee learned of Allsup’s participation, it forced him to resign
his executive post. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Some students on campus were joined by 12 Democratic legislators in
demanding that the College Republicans’ campus club status be revoked. Late last month, WSU President Kirk Schulz
responded to the legislators, saying that</span> <span style="line-height:150%;color:black">“we can’t shut down a
viewpoint no matter how horrific or upsetting it is.” <span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">WSU student body president Jordan Frost says that
as a black man he has felt the full impact of racist comments, but he still
follows the ACLU: “If you’re openly inciting violence, that’s a problem. But
other than that, we can’t start doing this filtering of people’s words and what
they say.”<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Our universities and colleges are the principal venues for the
presentation of all views. Our founding thinkers were convinced that rational
public debate would separate truth from falsehood, and they gave us the First
Amendment to guarantee that all of us have a place in a free exchange of
ideas. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Although the rise of Trump and fake news makes attainment of this ideal
far more difficult, we cannot start down a slippery slope where we find
ourselves at the receiving end of the limited speech that we have forced on
others.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">What if College Democrats somewhere say or do something outrageous? Won’t Republicans then ask that they lose
their right to participate in campus life?<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Nick Gier of Moscow taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31
years. Read the full version at <a href="http://www.nickgier.com/FreeSpeech.pdf">www.NickGier.com/FreeSpeech.pdf</a>. He can be contacted at
<a href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com">ngier006@gmail.com</a>.<span></span></font></span></p><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><font face="georgia, serif">-- <br></font><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="height:auto;width:auto"> <div> <div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><div style=""><font face="georgia, serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br style=""><br style="">-Greek proverb</font></div><div style=""><font face="georgia, serif" style=""><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
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